


Crosslives - Extra Lives

by fabricatedMiracles, Kentrakshi (Sartorially)



Series: Lives [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cheating, M/M, Trans Jake, lame tags, lawl, on a test
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-13 22:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2167542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabricatedMiracles/pseuds/fabricatedMiracles, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sartorially/pseuds/Kentrakshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the bonus pieces from crosslives can be found here.</p><p>THIS WORK WILL LIKELY NEVER BE COMPLETED. PLEASE HEED THIS WARNING BEFORE GETTING ATTACHED.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crosslives - Extra Lives

**Author's Note:**

> bonus piecessssss. enjoy. don't read aheadddd.
> 
> read only after chapter 2!

The initial shock and surprise passed very quickly, leaving Jake to sort of wiggle with glee. Who’d have thought that he would hit the jackpot so grandly? Taking a moment to run his left hand through his hair, and maybe steady himself so no one would suspect a thing, he dropped his gaze to the test.

Several other people, especially a few who sat in the back and often didn’t pay attention, were looking extremely uneasy about this ordeal. Pressing the tip of his pencil against the lines where he was to inscribe another response, the young medium murmured to his little cheatsheet.

“What do you know about skin leaf?”

_“Th’bush with th’rose-red leaves? Shit, that stuff’s great for burns. An’ cuts. Jus’ chew on th’leaves, stick ‘em on whatever ya wan’ healed, and bam. Nature’s Band-Aid. M’gran used up whenever I got into real bad fights.”_

As he jotted down each fact, and what he recalled after having his memory jogged, Jake spun off a few murmurs in the direction of Derrick’s bone, warm and pulsing against his chest. “Really? You got into fights? You seem far too charismatic for that!”

_“Looks an’ temperament don’t mean shit when ya’re thirteen an’ headstrong as fuck.”_

“Sounds horrible.”

_“Ya best get used t’hearin’ shit like that. I wasn’t a real good guy in life.”_

Jake nearly laughed, rubbing his chin to disguise his grin. And then, he tapped the eraser of his pencil against his jaw gently. “Well, I’m not real sure that is true. But, even if it is, you’ve got a second chance here. Look alive there.”

_“If that’s a fuckin’ pun, m’gonna burst a proverbial gut laughin’.”_

“Oh? You like a good play on words? Splendid!” He breathed, pretending to write something.

_“Jesus, ya’re fuckin’ precious.”_

Jake had to just bow his head at that and blush beneath caramel skin rather severely at his desk. He was getting off-track, and this was the sort of thing that you needed to treat like a train. Keep it running at the proper speed, and never stray off the tracks, for fear of derailing the train.

"Uhm, right... So nettle?"

THWACK!

His teacher's walking stick came down with a crack mere inches from his hands, and Jake jumped back, startled, as the other students looked up. A stern voice, accented and grating, became audible.

"Mister English, to whom are you talking?"

Stammering, Jake fished desperately for his words, and ran his hands through his hair until he found his tongue again, and said, "Madam. Uhm. Professor Megido."

Looking up at the troll woman, he flexed his ankles and explained, "I wasn't speaking to anyone! That would be cheating. I'm just talking to myself. Anxiety, you know?"

"There is an herb for that."

"Right! That's..." He faltered, and Derrick supplied, _"Kava-kava."_

"It's kava-kava, right?"

"Indeed, Mister English. Use it, perhaps? I will choose to believe you this day. I expect that you will retain your high standard of honorable conduct and hard work as you have in prior years. Back to work." The ram-horned woman said, and Jake nodded, going back to his paper.

_"Maybe ya can talk t'me another way?"_

_"Test, then?"_ Jake thought, tilting his head slightly as he forged his mental comnection with Derrick carefully.

 _"Hear ya loud and clear,"_ Derrick responded, though it now sounded as though the spirit were sitting beside him and speaking with him, and not in his head. _"Now, about th'nettle? S'used in exorcisms."_

 _"Thank you,"_ Jake thought gratefully, scribbling the answer down into the space as his eyes flicked up and across the room. A variety of trolls and other humans sat in the desks, and even the crown princess of Aliamir was carefully thinking through her answers.

The people in his Senior MedMagic class had been the Gold Group for his age as long as he could recall having been at the S4, and it was kind of nice, not having all new classmates each class period.

_"Valerian."_

_"Sleep aid an' sedative."_ Scratch, scratch, scribble, scribble, then, from Jake, "What's this gobbledygook about cats here?"

 _"Cats get frisky when ya give 'em valerian. My girl's cat got int'th'patch an' we could barely catch it. Damn thing was off th'wall."_ Derrick laughed as Jake filled in the blank. The living boy managed to recall a few answers, which Derrick confirmed, and between them, the exam was complete in decent time.

Getting up to deliver his exam to his teacher, Jake swallowed thickly, his eyes worried. The scrape of the chair was deafening in the quiet room, and his footsteps on the stone floor felt like a march to his execution.

Passing the paper to Professor Megido, he waited nervously for her to tap it with her wands and grade it.

Tap, tap.

"Well done, Mr. English. Ninety-one." The troll woman said, tapping her gradebook, where Jake could see his grade burn itself into the paper. And then, another touch of wand tips, and the paper was ash; dismissed, Jake returned to his seat, brows knitting.

_"Ninety-one? But we knew all the answers!"_

_"Yeah, but I lied."_ Derrick said. _"It looks suspicious if ya score a perfect hundred an' ya tend to score like, average. So I lied t'ya 'bout th'bloodroot. And th'turmeric. Jus' didn't wanna have your prof nail ya for a cheater."_

 _"I... Thanks? I'm still not pleased that you lied to me."_ Jake remarked, his eyes closing. _"Keep in mind that all that is going to erode my faith in you, and I suggest you don't let that happen."_

 _"Why not?"_ The Texan spirit inquired, not rudely. _"I mean, if it ain't too personal or nothin'."_ Laying his head on the cool surface of his desk, Jake responded, _"I've an ability that's fueled by human souls. I've only even used it successfully one time because I make it a point not to eat innocents."_

His voice took on a steely tone.

_"But if you fuck with my trust, I'll eat you faster than starving wolves on angora rabbits."_

Silence, then. And uneasy laughter. _"Tha' sounds absolutely fuckin' terrifyin'."_

_"Pros and cons of being trans English-Harley."_

Derrick hummed quietly, and the medium briefly drifted into his own head.

There was something just terrible about his very existence. It hadn't been supposed to pass. Never.

The female side's inheritance had come to him by biology, but the male ability had come by his spirit, and it made him obscenely powerful, under the right conditions.

A mystic, subclass medium?

That was all well and good.

A mystic, subclass medium with a double magical inheritance from the English-Harley family?

That was a bad fucking idea.

 _"Hey, at least ya have th'cute on your side."_ Derrick supplied. _"Sure makes it hard t'even wanna offend ya."_

_"...Are you flirting with me?"_

_"If ya want me t'be."_ Derrick said, tone playful, and Jake had to hold back a little sorta... giggle. Ugh, what was he doing? The ghost of a man nearly twice his present age that had been dead for at least twenty-five years was hitting on him in his mind! It sounded like the plot to some terrible fanfiction.

But it had been far too long since he'd been flirted without some fucking jab at his gender or his body, and though it was appreciated, he had to shoot Derrick down.

Jake just wasn't good with that love thing, as several people around him had learned the hard way.

_"You're flirting with disaster."_

_"A charmin' disaster."_

_"A natural disaster,"_ Jake retorted. _"Now... I wanted to ask. How would you feel about a possibly stronger link that will open you to more senses?"_

Derrick's bone warmed, vibrating slightly. _"That'd be damn great."_

_"Then I'll look into forging one Friday night, if all goes well and I don't have to gulp you back like Roxy with escargot."_

_"Scar th'what."_

_"French snaily dish. Slimy, but satisfying."_

After that there was a silence, and the remainder of the two hour class period went by quickly as Jake slept.

His dreams were devoid of the pleasantness of Prospit that, as a Gold Student, he had been found to be worthy of. It was instead consumed by a void through which he traveled, at a speed he didn't understand, to unknown destination.

In the distance, he could see the violet of Derse, and he was not at all sure how he'd ended up this far from Prospit... He didn't dreamwalk while awake on Earth, like Roxy, and he wasn't like the double-aware Dirk at all.

Another side effect of his abilities was his dream situation, which was confusing, because, technically, he was dead in his dreams.

And yet here he was. Approaching Derse.

There was a silhouette, someone with light hair, approaching him from Derse, and as they drew closer, Jake struggled to figure out who it was.

A ringing startled him out of his dream.

"Goddammit." He said, frowning as he slowly gathered his things to trudge off to Battle Studies.

Who had that been? It could have been any of the people in Aliamir, and Jake had to wonder what had possessed them to travel into the void.

However, he had a class to get to, and there was no time to dwell on dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> questions? comments? aaaay, hit us up. kudos are well-recieved!!!!


End file.
